love for it with them wherever they go, and they reject as mistaken and
unworthy the doctrine that we lose our own liberties by securing the
enduring foundations of liberty to others. Our institutions will not
deteriorate by extension, and our sense of justice will not abate under
tropic suns in distant seas. As heretofore, so hereafter will the
nation demonstrate its fitness to administer any new estate which
events devolve upon it, and in the fear of God will "take occasion by
the hand and make the bounds of freedom wider yet." If there are those
among us who would make our way more difficult, we must not be
disheartened, but the more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the task
upon which we have rightly entered. The path of progress is seldom
smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our fathers found them
so. We find them so. They are inconvenient. They cost us something. But
are we not made better for the effort and sacrifice, and are not those
we serve lifted up and blessed?

We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has confronted
every onward movement of the Republic from its opening hour until now,
but without success. The Republic has marched on and on, and its step
has exalted freedom and humanity. We are undergoing the same ordeal as
did our predecessors nearly a century ago. We are following the course
they blazed. They triumphed. Will their successors falter and plead
organic impotency in the nation? Surely after 125 years of achievement
for mankind we will not now surrender our equality with other powers on
matters fundamental and essential to nationality. With no such purpose
was the nation created. In no such spirit has it developed its full and
independent sovereignty. We adhere to the principle of equality among
ourselves, and by no act of ours will we assign to ourselves a
subordinate rank in the family of nations.